HMS Sirius

Formerly known as the 'Berwick', the H.M.S. Sirius was a 540 ton British ship, built in 1780 and used for East India trade. In time the ship was destroyed by fire and left as a burnt out hulk, until she was bought by the British Navy and renamed to H.M.S. Sirius. The British Navy repaired the ship, and in 1787 it was the flagship of the First Fleet.

She stayed at Port Jackson, Australia, alongside the small sloopHMS Supply when the rest of the fleet departed. When the colony nearly starved to death Governor Phillip needed one of the remaining ships to fetch supplies. H.M.S. Sirius was unseaworthy but Phillip had no choice. He sent the ship all the way to the Cape of Good Hope. It took seven months, but the ship had safely returned to Port Jackson, although many of the crew had perished due to scurvy. She had become the first ever ship to sail around the world at Antarctic latitudes.

Soon the colony started starving again, and this time it was decided that Port Jackson wasn't capable of growing the kind of crops the colony needed. Many convicts were moved to Norfolk Island, but on the ships second voyage to the island, she sailed too close to a reef and became stuck. Today she remains stuck in the reef, in 6 foot deep water.